KELLY PURSUES HIGHER REFUND

State Auditor Margaret Kelly is pressing her claim that Missouri taxpayers are owed far more than Gov. Mel Carnahan is planning to refund them under the Hancock Amendment.

Kelly's attorneys were in state appeals court last week in Kansas City, after a Jefferson City circuit judge had earlier dismissed her lawsuit seeking the increased amount on behalf of the state's taxpayers. Carnahan has announced refunds that will be paid next year totalling approximately $147 million. Kelly claims taxpayers should receive refunds of about $600 million more than the governor is planning to pay. At the heart of the dispute is the question of how many sources of income should be counted as state revenue.

Attorney General Jay Nixon is opposing the auditor and arguing that she has no status as auditor to bring her lawsuit. The circuit judge had agreed, ruling that she didn't have legal standing as auditor and suggesting that she amend her lawsuit to include a taxpayer, who is allowed to bring suit under the tax limitation amendment.

It appears, therefore, that the appeals court could dispose of the Kelly lawsuit on this procedural issue without reaching the underlying, substantive issue Kelly is raising, namely, what sources of income must be included to calculate the refunds. That would be regrettable.

The question of what constitutes "total state revenue" has dogged the Hancock Amendment since voters adopted it in 1980. Missouri taxpayers need a determination of the contentious issue of what constitutes "total state revenues" under the Hancock Amendment.